The same poll found that relatively few Americans consider a tax reform bill a priority — despite the strong ongoing push by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to pass such legislation.

Ranking much higher as priorities for the public are reauthorization of funding for the government's Children's Health Insurance Program, hurricane recovery funding, stabilizing Obamacare marketplaces and addressing a prescription painkiller epidemic.

Repealing the individual mandate would free up almost $340 billion in federal funds that Republicans want applied to tax cuts.

Fifty-five percent of respondents to the poll supported — at least initially — eliminating the mandate as part of a tax-reform bill, according to Kaiser, a leading health policy research group.

Forty-two percent initially opposed the idea.

But the numbers abruptly switched when respondents were "presented with facts and arguments about who is impacted and potential consequences of its repeal," Kaiser said.

About one-third of the supporters of the mandate's repeal — or 20 percent of the public overall — switch to opposing repeal once they hear what could happen.

Sixty-two percent of respondents opposed repeal of the mandate after hearing that most Americans automatically satisfy the rule because they already have health coverage through a job, or from Medicare, Medicaid or another public program.

Sixty percent oppose repeal after hearing it would lead individual insurance plan prices to be 10 percent higher than they otherwise would be if the rule remained in place.

And 59 percent said they opposed repeal after being told that it would lead to 13 million more people being without health insurance over the next decade than are currently projected.

The same percentage opposed repeal when told that no one is penalized for not having insurance coverage if the cost of coverage takes up too much of their income.

It is not clear that the idea of repealing the mandate will survive in the Senate, or in the entire Congress if Senate Republicans manage to pass a bill containing that provision.